News and views about the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 and other legislation, schemes and policies impacting the Right to Education of India's Children.

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Monday, April 22, 2013

Education for all scheme fails to stick to deadline

Under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, 19.82 lakh teacher posts were
sanctioned, of which only about 12.86 lakh have been filled till
December 2012. — Photo: K. Ananthan

New Delhi, April 2:

The March 31 deadline whizzed past, but implementation of the Centre’s
‘education for all’ plan — the Right to Education (RTE) Act — is yet to
come to pass.

Curiously, even though the deadline for complying with RTE norms was
integrated with the Act itself, Minister of Human Resource Development
Pallam Raju, who was heading the Central Advisory Board of Education
meeting here on Tuesday, said State Governments would now consider
schools on case-to-case basis and decide on the time to be given to
these for meeting the terms.

Without disclosing what kind of action will be taken against the erring
schools, Raju said, “Some action on schools that haven’t budged an inch
will be taken.”

However, he added that in case of schools that have done some work, the
State Governments concerned may consider giving these more time for
complying with the RTE norms. According to a senior official in the HRD
Ministry, the procedure for closure of erring schools that have not
fulfilled the provisions is a long one. This process, which involves a
number of steps, could give these schools as much as a year to comply
with norms, if not more.

The Minister, however, exuded confidence that all States would achieve
100 per cent compliance soon, but a number of State Governments,
including Uttarakhand and Haryana, expressed difficulty in meet the
terms of the RTE provisions.

While Raju said that physical infrastructure had been developed in “90
per cent schools in terms of classrooms, toilets and accessibility,” he
also accepted that teacher recruitment was a stumbling block.

Under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which is the vehicle for implementation
of RTE, 19.82 lakh teacher posts were sanctioned, of which only about
12.86 lakh have been filled till December 2012.

Moreover, earlier this month, the Ministry also decided to relax the
requirements for recruitment of teachers under RTE. However, teacher
shortage continues to remain a hurdle.

Raju said, “The whole purpose of the RTE Act was to create a learning
environment for students. There has been a sincere effort and the
momentum will be sustained.”